In its relentless efforts to dumb down debate and drum up opposition to President-elect Trump, NBC News effectively transformed itself into an episode of “Saturday Night Live” Wednesday, when its headline shrilled, “Betsy DeVos Cites Grizzly Bears During Guns-in-Schools Debate.”

In a Tuesday confirmation hearing for DeVos, whom President-elect Trump had nominated to be education secretary, gun-ban zealot U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D) of Connecticut asked, “Do you think that guns have any place in and around schools?” to which DeVos replied, “I think that's best left to locales and states to decide.”

Undeterred, Murphy badgered DeVos, demanding “You can’t say definitively today that guns shouldn’t be in schools?” DeVos replied, by way of example, that in rural Wyoming, “I would imagine that there’s probably a gun in the school to protect from potential grizzlies.” And so, with NBC’s help, “potential grizzlies” became the sophomoric Twitter hashtag of the day. LULZ, d00dz.